ORIGIN

1974 Saab EMS

This Swedish market import 1974 Saab 99 EMS is a rare example of the pre-Turbo range topper, and is said to be virtually rust free and in excellent shape with only 69,103 miles from new. We dig the original soccer ball wheels and crazy interior, and overall the car looks to be straight, solid, and complete with minimal wear for a now 40 year old machine. Find it here on eBay in Ontario, Canada with bidding at $1,000 and reserve not met.

Hi, I am the half Swedish, half Danisah gentleman, now living in Ontario Canada, that is selling this great 1974 99 EMS on eBay. My life dream was to open my own Saab car museum with one of every Saab model ever made. I came close, as in over 100 running vintage Saab cars 1950-2000, but had to realize it is a ton of work, just maintaining all these wonderful cars. So now I am scaling down to maybe 10 or 15 precious cars and will be happy with that. But there are many rare cars coming up for sale, I collected all my life, also rare rally parts. Take care guys, my first time on this web site :)

WOW!!…this car was my first exposure to SAAB….neighbors brother came home with a blk/blk EMS….we all just stood around it in the driveway gaping….never saw anything shaped like this… and imagine seeing the ignition key go in place by the shifter!!… crank sun-roof….it was just so different which is what made it so cool in a sea of camaros, mustangs etc. However I distinctly remember him always under the hood on the weekends….LOL…he kept it until it literally rusted itself to death… NE winters+copious amounts of road salt=floor plans falling out!

I got started on Saabs when someone dropped one off in my driveway with two engines and two transmissions in pieces in the back seat and trunk. Was particularly intrigued when I was able to lift the front end and maneuver it like a wheelbarrow-the front end was that light. Paid a local backyard specialist to teach me how to pick the working tranny and mate and install. Once I was driving, it was hard to not buy more. They were always in the Recycler for under $200 and they usually just needed something small, though not always simple. Never owned a turbo as when I first test drove one found myself way over the speed limit with no sense of how I got there. The best one I had was a 76 EMS in International Orange that looked like an Aspergum on wheels. $100 and the input shaft on the clutch and I had a very clean very light, fun car. Once I got the paint back to shiny it was like new. While incredibly cheap and fun to drive, the best aspect of this car was being able to park it in the long term lot at LAX and pick it out on the landing approach. Never had to remember where it was parked. Eventually ( easily a hundred thousand miles later) there were grinding sounds from the trans. Between starting a new business, and the first child, I took Rafi’s (still at Hollywood Blvd & the Hollywood freeway last time I stopped by about five years ago) offer of a running 900 in trade- straight up- he wanted it that much. Wished I’d kept just one of those mag wheels for a yard decoration. Even in Southern California, you don’t see many 99s anymore. While cheap to get into, keeping this vintage Saab going is bound to be challenging compared to the same era inline four english anything or Volvo. And having owned later Saabs, I would agree that they weren’t anywhere near as distinct an experience to drive as the early cars..

“…..regarding the Extra button in the 99 (and also other Saabs) It was a button located in the panel [to be used] if the owner of the car wanted to add some electrical equipment to the car, like foglights etc. In Swedish we call [it] Extraljus. So we can say that it is a bit of Swinglish in our cars.

The button was also available off the shelf at our dealers if people wanted to have more in their Saab. We probably sold MANY of them in the good old times when the staus of the cars was connected to how many switches you had on the dashboard…..”

I love these cars. I had a 78 Turbo back when I was first in the Navy. It was the only 99 in Havelock NC, possibly in eastern NC. The interior had an odor to it only an old Saab or Mercedes can reproduce. I wish I still had it.

anything’s fixable regarding the “workmanship” and “build quality” of these, UNTIL you have to find a windshield. good luck sourcing one, as un-cracked usable ones are becoming NLA fast! i’d buy this just for the glass.

A lot of car for the money if you ask me, and I would buy it if I hadn’t bought a Sonett V4 last month. My Dad bought a new ’76 EMS at the same dealer that Eric mentions in that great story, Clyde Billings Saab in Augusta, Me. Dad was kind enough to sell me his ’73 99L on a time payment schedule, given that my 1969 96 had the fuel inlet tube separate from the carb. Gasoline really is an accelerant. Anyway, the EMS, in bright factory orange, was quite a car. And it really would outperform a 4×4 truck in the snow.

Hi Eric & Crew, You have taken me down SAAB memory lane… Caribou, Maine style. I started out with the doomed marque with a 1971 99 which had the aforementioned Triumph 1.7 and the 96-style freewheeling transmission. I sold that perfectly clean and good running car to buy a 1969 SAAB 96 with a terminal case of underside rust (the 96 not being nearly as honest a ruster as the 99). As a side note, one of my good friends had an immaculate ’69 96 that would also see lots of hard on and off-road driving. Our Aroostook adventures typically involved big snow storms, a shovel and a tow rope.

The 96 gave way to a 1975 99. This car was the first car (but certainly not the last) that I owned which wished it had never been born. That car saw more automotive bad behavior (well documented in 35 mm film… remember that?) than you could imagine. The CIS fuel injection was certainly an improvement but still not perfect. My 75 had a separate switch for the fuel pump which only needed to be turned on after the engine was turning over. When I sold the car, the new owner called me repeatedly because he could never get the sequence right and was always flooding it! After three weeks, he wanted his money back!

By this time I was almost to UMaine Orono, having gone to school in Connecticut for two years. I sold the 75 to buy a 77 EMS. The ’77 was one of the infamous “Series 7″ cars. These “Series 7″ cars had a 7 as the 5th digit of the VIN. These cars were NOT made in Trollhatten by trolls, they were made in Malines, Belgium probably by a bunch of saboteurs from Volvo who dipped the chassises in salt water while on their way to the spray booth. Unlike the “honest rusting” SAABs, these Belgium cars from this era rotted from the inside out… starting with the suspension mounting points.

A month later, my black ’77 EMS was stripped to a bare shell and transplanted into a bare, but rust free M&M green ’75 99 3-door. This car was a serious sleeper in its day… when I did the swap, I put the 77 engine on a 74 transmission which was geared a little shorter than the ’77. MSS in Jamestown, NY supplied the header, and flow-through exhaust, camshaft, dual valve springs, EMS springs, Bilsteins etc and then to top it off, a set of 25 spoke TRX wheels. With the camshaft and double valve springs, the redline was about 7K (5500 was stock). With the lower ratioed 4-speed, it had a top speed of about 105, but was a blast to drive between 60-90.

I drove this car for two years before selling it to buy my first Land Rover (a 1972 Series III) which was the first of many. Only one more SAAB graced by yard after that, a blue 1980 3-door turbo with Inca wheels.

I have many great memories of driving these cars on snow-packed logging roads with four studded tires throughout northern New England. The mellow SAAB exhaust still makes me turn my head and my kids look at me like I am crazy when I point out the old swedish iron still on the road.

Thanks, Eric… good luck with this EMS. I was didnt make it to Orono until ’87, so I was probably a couple of years behind you but we certainly drove some of the same roads!

@ Dan: Concerning the P:W ratio, Saab was rather famous at the time for declaring that 20 lbs/hp was what they regarded as ideal for a passenger car. You’ll notice that this misses that by very little.

I’ve never had a Saab, but I know a guy in Nashville who’s had nothing else for long before I met him in ’73, and I’ll bet he went into mourning when they flatlined. I hope he feels a bit better now. I’d not paid much attention to the ones that came after the 96 and its ilk, except for the Sonett, but when they closed up shop I began noticing how gorgeous the newer ones are …

Couple other EMS memories; 1) heater had a wonderful mode where it blew hot air all over, but the center dash vents blew cold air on your face, which really helped keep you awake on long night drives. 2) car had bombproof rain gutters, I stress-tested them with stupid overloads like 4 full-size canoes, or enough fenceposts to bend Thule rack crossbars. 3) front-wheel e-brake was awesome for cutting donuts–in reverse!

I still own my 1978 EMS — too good of a car to sell for peanuts. It’s also doing a good job of being a large storage unit — woodworking tools, valuable old Saab interior parts — it all fits in the hatch. I have yet to see a tougher car than a good 99, but if they don’t like you they are a nightmare. This car is an early ems, with electronic fuel infection. I have not seen one of those exhaust manifolds without a crack in at least 20 years. Also the generation 1 fuel injection is kind of lame. In 1975 the 99 got CIS injection and thing were much better. The EMS got substantial improvements for the 1976 model year. Quicker steering, Bilstien shocks, 3 spoke sport steering wheel–all developed with the aid of the real Stig. Mr. Blomquist was a factory rally driver for Saab then, and he turned the EMS into a proper weapon. As someone else noted, the weather is sure nice in those pics — they are probably 10 years old. I saw this car on the bay last night and when I realized who the seller was, I moved on. Definitely need a PPC on this one, and be prepared to go home empty handed.

@Luffedog, oh my dear Sir, I live in Sweden (born and raised right here in Zion:)) and I regret to tell you that we do use road salt up here. It’s only in the far north (read north of the polar circle) that they don’t. Rust was always Saab’s ironic achilles heal. 80% of Sweden’s geography provides a climate that is a nightmare for cars made of steel, so you’d think a swedish car manufacturer would focus on rust protection. Saab however, staying true to their unorthodox nature, didn’t. This is probably the number one reason why Volvo has always been the best selling car in Sweden and Saab never came even close.

Like Eric, I grew up bombing around in Saabs and learning to drive on the roads of NH and Vermont. I had a ’79 900 EMS with the hatchback, parents had the ’78 99 5 door before they got into 900. Ours came from the (now defunct) dealer in Woodstock, VT. You could pack a small town in the back with the seat down in either of them but I always liked this 99 EMS style better. These cars are awesome in the snow with 4 snows. Always liked those wheels too. I’d add the stripe package.

I still have my old EMS rear trunk tag on the wall in my garage and the orange adjustable pliers in my tool box. And I still occasionally catch myself putting my tranny in reverse when I park.

This one looks like a good example at a good price, although bids are now up to $3K. As the seller notes, the grille is non-original, from a later [’79?] model. The first years of the Saab 99 are to be avoided, as SAAB didn’t have sufficient engine capacity in-house and outsourced 2.0 liter production to Triumph. The result: thousands of warped heads and a bad reputation for a new SAAB model. My host mother drove a ’77 EMS when I lived in N. Finland, and swore by the snow handling. She actually hated the winter handling of her previous car, a Volvo 240 [sorry, jboat49]. I loved the handling, too, with some left-foot braking useful now and then for the proper rally driver approach to tight turns. Beyfon is correct, that these cars rust first where visible, IIRC along the trailing edge of the hood and base of the cowl. If this car has been driven in winter mostly in Scandinavia, rust is a minor concern, as the Nordic countries do not use road salt: weather is too cold for salt to work. The interior looks ’70s correct, the wheels look correct, the trunk shot looks good, the headlights are Swedish-correct with the little wipers, and the engine was built by the Trolls, not by Triumph. Someone will have lots of fun with this! Twice as needy as your average Volvo, but twice as much fun IMHO. I like some Volvos too, but they had their own quality problems in the ’70s. Finally, as a pedestrian I was hit by a car once, by one of these 99s! A Yank in Finland, I crossed the street in the middle of the block, and ended up over the big safety bumpers and on the hood. Not even a bruise, but the lady was only driving 15 kph trying to park in downtown Oulu. P.S. The parking brake locks the FRONT wheels on the 99, making for really cool multiple spins on the meter-thick ice over the Gulf of Bothnia ice road. Late at night . . . five guys in the car . . . after 5 or 6 360s, the first teenager who can step out of the car and stand up straight wins the game! Oh, to be 17 and stupid again! GLWS.

A few things: that’s the wheel mine had. Mine had a center console, and the stripes are missing, so probably a repaint unless they were an option in Europe.

Oh yeah,I forgot the screwdriver jammed in the ignition after the cheap pot metal key broke more than once. And the totally illegal rally spec high beams that would make the dash lights flicker when I turned them on.

A 74 ems was the first car I bought with my own money. Paid 1400 in 1984 for an orange one with leaky motor and bad motor mounts. My dad and I swapped in a 900 8v. Amazing car in winter, frankly just ok handling on dry roads and a little buzzy with the 4 speed on the highway. But ridiculously practical and comfortable. And got 30 mpg to boot.

I owned it for 4 years then sold it to my brother who flogged it for another 4. Highlights of ownership: driving it on the beach one Sumer on the outer banks with the tires aired down; blowing a slave cylinder on a bluebird ski day, skiing all day then carefully matching revs on the 3 hour drive home in freezing darkness knowing I couldn’t come to a full stop: and having my high school classmates remember that car 25 years later!

Went on to own 6 more Saabs. In fact 2 years ago I found the owners manual from the ems and gave it to a Saab clubber.

A 78 EMS was the very first cool Eurocar I ever owned (not counting the VW buses and Beetle that preceded the Saab.) mine was maroon over reddish brown interior with the rally type 3 spoke leather wheel. What a great little car, went on so many skiing, climbing, paddling and amourous adventures. Remember splurging on Vredestein snows, then the only thing that could stop me in winter was landing in the ditch, which happened a fair bit til I learned to left foot brake thru the turns.

It was so stout. Sold it to my roomate, who lent it to his girlfriend who hydroplaned on a slushy road, slid off going way too fast, and sheared off a phone pole. Top of the pole was hanging by the wires, with a 5-foot chunk stuck between the A-pillars where the windshield used to be. The EMS was done, Candace was totally unhurt. After that they bought another saab and we car-pooled each other back and forth to the Saab garage on a regular basis.

I owned a 1980 EMS, great car. I loved having something different from the crowd, and I still try to do that but it is harder every day. Even Mercedes have to put a big badge on their grill so you know it’s a MB not a Honda

Eric in Vermont – wow, still married to the same women! While I am very happy with my wife, I do not think I could handle more than one.

About the Saab, it looks like a nice example. The Saab 99 was usually “a honest ruster” – you would see rust in the fenders before anything serious would develop underneath, so if it looks good it usually is good. The EMS is nice to drive, comfortable long distance cruisers but heavy non-assisted steering may not be much appreciated for city parking. Much more fragile than the Volvos – head gaskets, gearboxes and driveshafts killed many of these, but also a much more modern driving experience. And those seats are still comfortable even by modern standards.

My dad had several 99s including a light brown ’78 99 coupe manual.. We moved to St. Louis in 1982 from Rhode Island. So many people starred at this car because they had no idea what it was. Still have a small soft spot in my heart for SAAB. It was later replaced with. Burgandy ’84 base 900 hatch. Loved that too!

Never driven in the winter – good for the collector I guess but what a waste! I have fond memories of going down unplowed roads and pushing snow aside with the bumper! One time we visited a farm after a storm. The farm was on a hill and you could see how the farmer had attempted to get back up with his 4×4 pickup and given up, parking at the bottom. You should have seen his face when we pulled up in front of his house with the old Saab. I guess I’d sum it up as not the greatest quality control in manufacturing but an absolute TANK in the winter!!

Oh boy, does this bring back memories! My very first car was a ’69 96 that my father’s boss gave to me when I was in high school. He was moving to Tasmania (no joke) and it wasn’t worth it to bring it with him. I drove the crap out of the 96 for 4 years. Every morning, going to and from work, I’d take backroads, timing myself with the old 96 going full out the whole way, the 155 width tires howling on every turn. Several times, lights would appear in my rear view- someone was catching me! It was a guy in a 99EMS. I couldn’t believe it! He’d wait for a little straight stretch, dip the lights and blow by me. I had to have a 99EMS. I went to a dealership in Augusta Maine and there she was, a ’76 99EMS. Exactly the same color and interior as the one in the ad. I had to have it, even though this one was sort of tired. The exhaust was banging against the undercarriage, the rear view mirror was hanging by a thread, the left rear tail light lens as broken, every panel was dented… all saying “run away! don’t buy me! I haven’t been taken care of at all!!!” So of course I bought it on the spot. Turned out to be a very tight car once I fixed some of this stuff. Fast forward a couple of years to my honeymoon in 1982. Off we go in the 99EMS, covering in shaving cream and cans rattling and dragging behind. We got married in August, and that summer the car developed a coolant leak. I really didn’t know much about cars at the time, so I kept an eye on it, filling it back up with the garden hose. I’d put the proper antifreeze in before winter, right? No problem. So 50 miles into our honeymoon to the White Mtns of New Hampshire, the temp gauge went into the red. No problem. Just pull over at a gas station and fill it up. Huh. Seems to be taking ALOT of water. Oh well, on we go. 10 miles later, it pegs the needle again. Pull over, fill it up… Maybe something else is wrong? I pulled the dipstick and… you guessed it… it was covered in milky white goo all the way to the top. That’s where the water is! The head cracked! Turns out the area around the exhaust valves is a little weak and can crack, exacerbated by a low antifreeze mixture. Being poor college students, we really didn’t have much for options. We spent out honeymoon in beautiful Orono Maine at our first college apartment (the whole building was condemned and burned to the ground the next year, if that tells you anything), riding bicycles. We have a picture of the 99EMS being hauled away with a tow truck, the Just Married sign still in the rear window. So with all that, I can tell you three things: 1) I’ve never gotten rid of the Saab bug and currently have 5 vintage Saabs. 2) I’m still married to the same wonderful women, who supports me in this crazy hobby. 3) I really really want the 99EMS! I still maintain it was one of the best, tightest Saabs I’ve owned.

Apart from perhaps the somewhat bus-like angle of the steering wheel, an EMS feels a little like a saloon version of an early 911 – to me, that’s a good thing. With the optional headlight wipers, this is a pretty neat collectible with gobs of unique style. Neko.

I just figured this out, EMS stands for Even More Saab. These are becoming increasingly rare, but as long as the market says ‘if it ain’t got a turbo we don’t care’ prices will stay low. Which is fine by me. This car provides decent, driveable power for a fraction of turbo money.